Customer Rating: 
Summary: smashing!
Comment: absolutely brilliant!
love this film, better then shaolin soccer in my opinion
a must see if your a fan of kung fu, basketball, Jay Chou or Eric Tsang!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, This Is Not "Kung Fu Soccer"
Comment: An orphaned boy Fang Shi-Jie (Jay Chou, "Curse of the Golden Flower") grows up to be a student of a kung fu school. Shi-Jie eventually leaves the school, however, after getting involved with a brawl, and meeting a small-time, down-and-out hustler Wang Li (Eric Tsang, "Infernal Affairs" trilogy), who discovers the young Shi-Jie's talent as basketball player. This is how the story of "Kung Fu Dunk" begins.
"Kung Fu Dunk," which unashamedly borrows the concept of "Kung Fu Soccer," is in fact a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas that sit uncomfortably together. Director Yen-ping Chu throws in many jokes and actions, disregarding the storyline or any logics (OK, this is his style, right?), but the jokes and actions are just unfunny and unexciting.
For all you can see is those basketball players (including Chen Bo-lin and Baron Chen) passing and shooting helped by wire stunts. Four teachers of kung fu school arrive and are allowed to join the "game," which means doing kung fu fighting in the basketball court. Apparently one master taught his pupil how to "freeze" the time and rewind it, something Christopher Reeve's Superman did many years ago. And don't forget the subplot about the parentage of Shi-Jie.
"Kung Fu Dunk" asks us to embrace its chaos and enjoy it. I like chaotic comedy - "chaotic" could be anything from "The Marx Brothers" to "ZAZ" or Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker - but this chaos is not just hilarious. Stephen Chow successfully incorporated kung fu into soccer to great comedic effect. However, the kung fu elements (kicking, punching etc.) have no place in the plot (or the basketball court) of "Kung Fu Dunk."
The director gives it a try anyway, not knowing how to use the sports factors in comedy and action. The result is just a mess. Jay Chou (who was much better in "Curse of the Golden Flower") looks terribly bored; and so do Chen Bo-lin and Baron Chen. As to Charlene Choi, her job seems to stand and smile before the camera and nothing more.
At the time of writing, some sources including internet site IMDb cite the name of Japanese manga creator Takehiko Inoue (known for his "SLUM DUNK") as the basis of the film. "Kung Fu Dunk" might have been inspired by the story of this hugely popular comic, but the fact is the film's story or characters have nothing to do with the manga (as far as I remember, I couldn't find the name of Inoue in the credits).
|
